Report  of 

The  Municipal  Annexation 
Commission 


.. 


To  The 


City  Council 

- of - 

Los  Angeles 

Filed  November  11,  1913 


This  Report  approved  by  the  City  Council  at  its 
meeting  held  November  13,  1913. 


The  Municipal  Annexation  Commission  was  or¬ 
ganized  October  14,  1913,  by  authority  of  the  City 
Council  of  Los  Angeles,  upon  recommendation  of 
Mayor  H.  H.  Rose  that  definite  action  be  taken  rela¬ 
tive  to  distribution  of  the  Aqueduct  water. 

The  Commission  was  organized  with  Mayor  Rose 
as  chairman;  Councilman  M.  F.  Betkouski,  vice- 
chairman;  George  B.  Harrison,  secretary;  Ralph 
Criswell,  George  H.  Dunlop,  Miles  Gregory,  Irving 
H.  Heilman,  Leslie  R.  Hewitt  and  Orra  E.  Monnette, 
commissioners. 

Daily  sessions  were  held  with  conferences  from 
representatives  of  all  the  outside  districts  that  asked 
to  be  heard. 

At  an  early  date  in  the  series  of  meetings  the  Com¬ 
mission  decided,  as  a  fundamental  policy,  that  an¬ 
nexation  to  Los  Angeles  should  be  made  a  condition 
precedent  to  distribution  of  the  Aqueduct  water 
This  report  was  unanimously  adopted  by  the  Muni¬ 
cipal  Annexation  Commission  and  presented  to  the 
City  Council  at  its  meeting  held  November  11,  1913, 
and  approved  by  the  City  Council  November  13,  1913. 

REPORT  OF  THE  MUNICIPAL  ANNEXATION 

COMMISSION 

To  the  Honorable  Council  of  the  City  of  Los 

Angeles: 

Your  Municipal  Annexation  Commission,  appointed 
to  consider  the  relation  that  should  exist  between 
the  sale  of  aqueduct  water*  and  the  annexation  or 
consolidation  of  outside  territory  to  the  City  of  Los 
Angeles,  herewith  submits  the  following  report: 

A.  We  recommend  that  annexation  or  consolida¬ 
tion  shall  be  a  condition  precedent  to  the  furnishing 
of  water  to  any  territory  outside  the  present  city 
boundaries. 

B.  We  submit  and  recommend  a  general  plan 
under  which  annexation,  in  the  case  of  unincorpor¬ 
ated  territory,  or  consolidation  in  the  case  of  incor- 

—3— 


porated  cities,  shall  take  place.  Certain  of  the  details 
of  this  plan  can  only  be  completely  worked  out  in 
connection  with  the  different  requirements  of  the 
various  sections  that  may  seek  annexation  or  con¬ 
solidation,  but  the  plan  as  a  whole  is  quite  definite, 
and  there  need  be  no  difficulty  in  arranging  for  the 
details  that  will  be  appropriate  for  each  case  of 
annexation  or  consolidation  as  such  cases  may  arise. 

A.  Annexation  or  Consolidation  a  Condition  Prece¬ 
dent  to  the  Sale  of  Water 

We  deem  it  appropriate  that  we  should  state  some 
of  the  reasons  that  have  led  us  to  recommend  that 
annexation  or  consolidation  should  be  a  condition 
precedent  to  the  furnishing  of  water  to  any  territory 
outside  the  present  city  boundaries. 

(1)  Annexation  or  consolidation,  quicker  than 
any  other  method,  will  get  the  aqueduct  water  into 
use,  producing  a  revenue,  and  making  possible  the 
turning  of  the  wheels  of  the  City’s  electric  power 
plant.  Without  annexation,  no  outside  territory  can 
secure  a  permanent  title  to  the  water.  Lacking  per¬ 
manent  title  to  the  water,  outside  territory  will  not, 
and  can  not,  raise  the  money  to  install  the  necessary 
distributing  systems.  With  annexation  or  consoli¬ 
dation,  however,  the  water  right  becomes  permanent, 
and  on  that  basis  it  will  be  possible  for  the  annexed 
or  consolidated  sections  to  finance  their  own  dis¬ 
tributing  systems.  Several  years  have  been  spent  in 
various  efforts  to  have  Los. Angeles  approve  plans 
for  selling  the  aqueduct  water  to  outside  territory 
while  that  territory  still  remained  outside  the  city 
boundaries.  None  of  these  plans  has  met  with  the 
approval  of  the  City  and  it  certainly  now  is  time,  in 
the  interest  both  of  the  aqueduct  enterprise  and  of  a 
lower  tax  rate,  that  the  City  adopt  the  plan,  direct 
and  simple,  of  annexing  or  consolidating  territory 
and  distributing  water  therein. 

(2)  Annexation  or  consolidation  will  eliminate 


4 


several  serious  legal  uncertainties..  If  Los  Angeles 
steps  outside  the  field  of  selling  water  to  its  own 
inhabitants,  and  proceeds  to  undertake  a  general 
water  business,  selling  to  outside  customers,  it  is 
difficult  to  say  to  just  what  extent  the  courts  would 
hold  that  the  City,  in  relation  to  water  sold  outside 
its  boundaries,  had  brought  upon  itself  the  obliga¬ 
tions  and  regulations  that  apply  to  private  water 
companies  selling  water  for  profit.  Thus  this  ques¬ 
tion  arises:  Would  it  be  possible  for  land  owners, 
along  the  line  of  the  aqueduct,  perhaps  in  Antelope 
Valley,  or  the  Owens  River  Valley,  to  compel  the 
City  to  sell  them  water?  Good  legal  opinion 
answers  this  question  in  the  negative,  but  some 
Supreme  Court,  and  not  our  local  attorneys,  would 
ultimately  decide  that  question.  Here  is  another 
question:  Would  the  City  of  Los  Angeles,  or  would 
the  State  Railroad  Commission,  have  the  right  to 
fix  the  rates  at  which  Los  Angeles  would  sell  water 
outside  its  boundaries?  From  these  and  similar  legal 
uncertainties  annexation  will  save  the  City.  Such 
questions  can  never  arise  if  the  City  sells  water  only 
to  territory  that  first  comes  inside  the  city  boun¬ 
daries. 

(3)  Annexation  or  consolidation  will  be  a  step  in 
the  direction  of  City  and  County  consolidation.  For 
a  number  of  years  Los  Angeles  has  desired  to  relieve 
itself  of  the  expensive  dual  government,  city  govern¬ 
ment  and  county  government,  which  it  now  has,  and 
has  desired  to  consolidate  these  two  local  govern¬ 
ments  into  one  government,  known,  under  the  Con¬ 
stitution  of  the  State  of  California,  as  a  Consolidated 
City  and  County  Government.  No  progress  has 
been  made  on  this  problem  in  the  past,  but  if  Los 
Angeles,  by  various  extensive  annexations,  can  so 
enlarge  its  boundaries  that  the  City  itself  shall  cover 
i  practically  the  entire  area  necessary  to  form  a 
proper  consolidated  city  and  county  government, 

I  .  -5- 


then  the  difficulties  of  the  problem  will  have  been 
greatly  simplified.  y  . 

(4)  Annexation  or  consolidation  will  give  Los 
Angeles  official  standing  as  the  metropolis  of  the 
Pacific  Coast.  Greater  Los  Angeles,  co-extensive 
with  the  territory  receiving  aqueduct  water,  will  have 
a  population,  assessed  valuation,  bank  clearings,  v. 
building  permits,  etc.,  in  excess  of  any  other  city  on 
the  Pacific  Coast.  All  this  has  an  economic  value  to 
which  Los  Angeles  is  entitled  by  reason  of  the  great 
investment  it  has  made  and  the  risk  it  has  incurred 
in  the  Owens  River  Aqueduct  enterprise.  Wherever 
the  aqueduct  water  is  placed — be  it  north,  south,  east 
or  west — there  will  the  great  development  of  the 
future  be  found,  and  that  development  should  be  a 
part  of,  and  help  to  constitute,  the  Greater  Los 
Angeles  that  is  to  be. 

B.  General  Plan  of  Annexation  or  Consolidation 

(1)  Annexation  or  consolidation  shall  be  a  con¬ 
dition  precedent  to  the  furnishing  of  water  to  any 
territory. 

(2)  Annexed  territory  shall  bear  its  proportionate 
share  of  the  Aqueduct,  Power  and  Harbor  bonds, 
but  not  of  the  balance  of  the  outstanding  indebted¬ 
ness  of  the  City,  for  the  two  reasons  that  either  the 
remaining  bonded  indebtedness  has  been  created  for 
purely  local  purposes  or  in  particular  cases  is  of 
such  comparatively  small  amounts  as  not  to  merit 
consideration. 

(3)  The  more  distant  annexed  territory,  or  cities 
consolidating  with  Los  Angeles,  shall  have,  if  desired 
by  the  voters  thereof,  local  boards  of  public  works 
to  pass  on  questions  relating  to  streets  and  local 
public  works  and  oversee  the  same,  all  under  the 
direction  of  the  City’s  Board  of  Public  Works.  We 
recommend  that  the  functions  of  such  local  boards 
of  public  works,  having  first  been  established  by  t 
ordinance,  shall  thereafter  be  further  established  as 

—6— 


may  be  necessary  in  the  form  of  a  charter  amend¬ 
ment,  to  be  adopted  by  the  City.  The  purpose  of 
such  charter  amendment  should  be  to  make  a  more 
perfect  provision,  than  can  be  made  by  ordinance, 
for  insuring  local  jurisdiction  over  purely  local  mat¬ 
ters.  '  In  this  manner  we  believe  an  effective  system 
of  borough  government  could  be  inaugurated. 

(4)  Agricultural  sections  shall  be  classified  as 
such  in  contradistinction  from  City  sections  and 
shall  have  sixty  (60%)  per  cent,  of  the  annual  taxes 
they  pay  for  the  general  running  expenses  of  the 
City  set  aside  to  constitute  a  road  and  improvement 
fund  for  general  public  improvement  and  road 
work  in  such  agricultural  sections.  To  balance  this 
road  fund  arrangement,  the  City  shall  not  attempt 
to  furnish  to  the  agricultural  sections  those  features 
of  city  expenditures  not  required  by  agricultural 
sections,  such  as  expenditures  for  parks,  playgrounds, 
garbage  collection,  and,  to  a  large  extent,  expenses 
for  fire  and  police  protection. 

(5)  The  municipal  water  system  shall  be  extended 
to  all  annexed  or  consolidated  territory.  Annexed 
or  consolidated  territory  shall  pay  for  its  local  dis¬ 
tributing  systems,  to  be  acquired  or  installed,  owned 
and  controlled  by  the  City,  for  the  distribution  of 
water,  but  the  City  shall  construct,  as  main  lines  or 
conduits  carrying  the  aqueduct  water  to  the  local 
distributing  systems,  the  trunk  lines  known  as  the 
Glendale  line,  including  connection  with  the  north¬ 
ern  and  eastern  portions  of  the  City;  the  Fernando 
conduit,  conveying  the  water  to  a  storage  reservoir, 
and  the  Chatsworth  main,  to  be  extended  from  the 
storage  reservoir  to  a  connection  with  th*#tos  An¬ 
geles  city  trunk  line;  said  main  lines  or  conduits  to 
be  built  to  the  extent  and  of  the  capacity  sufficient 
to  take  care  of  the  needs  of  the  City  and  of  any 
additional  territory  which  shall  be  annexed  or  con¬ 
solidated  or  planned  to  be  annexed  to  or  consoli¬ 
dated  with  the  City. 


■7 


The  particular  manner  in  which  the  various  an¬ 
nexed  districts  shall  raise  the  money  with  which  to 
pay,  each  for  its  own  local  distributing  system,  may 
well  be  varied  to  suit  the  different  needs  of  the 
various  districts.  Should  a  large  area,  such  as  the 
San  Fernando  Valley,  desire  to  organize,  subsequent 
to  its  annexation  to  the  City,  into  an  irrigation  dis¬ 
trict  under  the  so-called  Shenk  Act,  for  the  purpose 
of  raising  funds  with  which  to  install  a  local  dis¬ 
tributing  system,  we  believe  that  the  City  should 
approve  such  a  method  of  financing  the  cost  of  said 
local  distributing  system.  We  believe  that  organi¬ 
zation  of  territory  into  an  irrigation  district  prior  to 
its  annexation,  or  under  the  so-called  Bridgford  Act, 
would  be  contrary  to  the  annexation  program  which 
we  recommend. 

(6)  Extension  of  any  light  and  power  system 
which  the  City  may  install  shall  be  made  in  annexed 
or  consolidated  sections  on  the  same  general  plan 
that  may  be  followed  within  the  present  City 
boundaries. 

(7)  Annexed  or  consolidated  territory  desiring 
to  connect  with  the  outfall  sewer  to  the  sea  shall 
have  the  right  to  do  so,  and  the  City  shall  increase 
the  capacity  of  the  outfall  sewer  from  time  to  time, 
as  may  be  necessary. 

Respectfully  submitted, 

(Signed)  H.  H.  ROSE,  President. 

MARTIN  F.  BETKOUSKI,  Vice-President. 
GEORGE  B.  HARRISON,  Secretary. 
RALPH  L.  CRISWELL, 
GEORGE  H.  DUNLOP, 

MILES  GREGORY, 

LESLIE  R.  HEWITT, 

IRVING  H.  HELLMAN, 

ORRA  E.  MONNETTE,  f 

Municipal  Annexation  Commission. 

—8— 


